The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-04-23
The Electoral Votes.


ial office. One of these laws
changed the order of succession to
the office, so that hereafter the
Secretary of State and after him
the other members of the Cabinet
in order, will become President in
case Of the death of both the Pres.
ident and the Vice President. The
other law which has been passed
supplies an omission in the Con-
stitution by providing method of
counting the electoral votes. All
that the Constitution says in refer
ence to this matter is, "that the
President of the Senate shall, in
presence of the Senate and House
of Representatives, open all the Ger.
tificates, and the votes shall then
be counted"
If there were no such thing as
contested or disputed elections
this would be sufficient, since there
gould then be no controversy as to
what were "votes," and every per.
son who could read, write and do q
simple sum in arithmetic would
come to the same result in count.
ing the votes. But, in fact, there
have been puzzling questions after
several elections, beginning with
that of 1920 and ending with that
of 1876. Only in the last case
however, would the decision of dis
puted questions affect the final re-
suit. Although it is has been con-
tended, not without plausible argu-
ments to support the contention,
that the President of the Senate
has the right to decide what votes
shall be counted, Congress has
claimed and exercised the right,
and is the theory of the act just
passed, that the two Houses are
the final judges of what are votes
to be counted.
In one case, however, Congress
gives up this privilege of decision
absolutely, and this constitutes the
most interesting and valuable
feature of the new act. Any State
may now provide by it's own laws
for the trial and determination of
all contests and questions relating
to the choice of electors. If q de-
cision upon such questions has
been made at least six days before
the day when the electors are to
meet and give their votes for Pres
ident and Vice President, the
votes given by the persons so de-
termined to have been chosen can
not be rejected, even by a un-
.animous vote of both Houses. The
act contains many provisions
which it would be well to state, if
we had the space. We may say,
briefly, that in case of a dispute
which has not been passed upon by
a State tribunal, Congress becomes
the arbiter, but in such way that,
except in very extraordinary cases,
the worst that can happen is that
the State will lose it's electoral
vote. Votes of contesting electors
can not be counted at all unless
both Houses agree that they are the
true votes of the State. In order
to give time for the State tribunals
to act, the day set for the electors
to meet and vote is changed from
December to January, so that
there will be two full months be-
tween the popular vote for electors
in November and the actual choice
of a President.
While the whole act is wise
and judicious measure, passed by
both branches or Congress without
Il division, and supported by men,
bers of both parties, its great value
as we have already said, is in that
section which permits each State
to secure absolutely the counting
of it's own vote. 1t is only nee
essary for the State Legislature to
pass law referring every contest
oyer the choice of the electors to
one of it's courts, which ought to
be the highest court Of appeal.
When this has been done, every
question as to the vote of that
State will be decided in advance,
and Congress will have no power
either to dispute the finding, or to
throw out the vote. Such danger
GUS contest as that in 1877 can
never again RISE Youths COnil,an-
ion.
When and How to Practice.
When and how to practice is the
great question Of the pianoforte